"Wanting to create an album featuring an East meets West attitude without sounding like a hokey world Beat fusion album was not an easy task. I crafted some of these sounds in Ziko Iko Iko to mimic my emotions after watching a few South Korean horror films, the graphic and prolonged torture each character was going though captured my imagination. From pulling off nails and piano wires ripping the fingers off, I wondered what it would sound like to play the piano with just stubs to press the keys in. A chaotic mess I'm sure, but I crafted this album to not be a mess, to be a precise cut of Asian/Eastern music. Two Teeth In channels distorted rhythms of a futuristic street bazaar in a distopic Istanbul, with it's icy ambient synths cutting above the pounding street drums. Folding Hands calls to the forgotten temples an gods of Angkor Wat, glitch synths gibbering to a constant drum hoping for the rains to come and wash away the impurity of man. This has to be one of my favorite conceptual works and putting a lot of time and effort, three years to be exact, has tempered a new respect for music and cultures while holding fast to my own. I wish only to observe, not become these cultures. I find it more sincere and respectful to myself and the nature of man around me.

Thanks to Zhang and the entire Bypass team for making this happen. "

- Benatos

Credits:

Written, Produced, Performed by Benatos Thompson, Arranged by ZhangJW, Benatos Thompson, Mastered by ZhangJW, Artwork by Kinle Wo.

Bypass Netlabel - bp.bai-hua.org

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